If you had told my shy, introverted eighteen-year-old self that public speaking in any form would be a regular part of her job, she would not have believed you. (My eighteen-year-old self was also a generally skeptical smartass, so you would have had that to contend with as well.) But guess what, eighteen-year-old self: it’s true!

Writers and editors tend to be an introverted bunch, allergic to the spotlight. It’s why we are attracted to words, which we can hone until we are satisfied with them and then release into the wild like little birds who will make their own way to readers. We aren’t usually there to watch readers take them in: we rarely perform our words.

You can certainly have a thriving career as an author or editor without doing a single minute of public speaking. However, if you can learn how to do it, you’ll have one of the most powerful marketing and networking tools available to you. It is a skill that can be learned: you don’t have to be a natural—I definitely am not!

It turns out that the worlds of acting, comedy, and improv are full of introverts who thrive on the adrenaline rush of being on stage, in the same way extreme sports athletes thrive on activities that take them right up to the edge of danger. I’ve learned to enjoy the excitement, and I’ve also learned that I’ll need time to recover afterward.

I think the best preparation for us introverts is to have lots and lots of practice, especially in lower-stakes settings. My best training ground for public speaking was teaching. I spent several years in my twenties coaxing classrooms of bored, distractible college freshmen through their required writing course. If a teaching gig isn’t an option, look for classes or activities that involve a big dose of speaking or performance over a number of weeks. You will be surprised at how quickly your nerves wear off!

Teaching was also where I learned the power of position. If you are the one standing up at the front of the classroom holding the roster and syllabus, then what everyone in the room sees is simply a teacher, not a nervous grad student with a bad case of imposter syndrome. Similarly, whenever you show up as a speaker, listeners will automatically grant you the power of authority and knowledge, without even realizing they are doing it.

Now, it is possible to lose listeners along the way, but in my experience that’s fairly rare and only happens when the speaker hasn’t bothered to prepare, doesn’t know what they are talking about, or acts like a jerk. If you are an introvert who is scared of public speaking, you are automatically protected from any of these three sins! Your anxiety simply will not allow you to agree to speak on a topic you don’t know well or to show up unprepared or treat an audience with contempt.

Preparation is also key to calming your nerves. Practice your talk, of course, but also prepare for various things that might go wrong. If you are using a slide deck, have a back-up plan for how to do the talk without it, which will allay your nerves during the inevitable tech hiccups. Have your notes in a separate document and bring a handout with key graphics or quotes that you can give to the audience if there is a tech failure. Or you can follow the practice of one frequent presenter I met at a recent conference who travels with his own mini projector and screen just in case. Whatever security blanket you need, don’t hesitate to use it!

Many conference sessions feature a panel of several speakers, and this can be a great way to start. You’ll likely only need to prepare ten to fifteen minutes of material, and you’ll have a moderator there to look after you and serve as host. You can even organize a panel yourself and include folks you know and trust, which will make the appearance feel more like a public conversation (okay, maybe with some mics!) than public speaking. The question and answer period will be better if you listen closely to your fellow panelists’ presentations. I know that sounds obvious, but it can be surprisingly difficult to focus on someone else’s content if you are gearing up for or recovering from your own piece. I often take a few notes to help get me in focus mode.

If you are going to be on a podcast, see if the interviewer will send you questions in advance—quite often this will be their standard practice because they know it leads to better conversations. Prepare bullet points for each question and then practice talking them through several times. The goal is to be able to riff off those talking points without having to refer to them often.

If you are hosting a large Zoom meeting, something else I do frequently, you can also prepare ahead of time. Write an agenda in checklist form that includes all of your action steps and talking points in one place, and then just work your way through it. Public speaking requires a lot of focus for those of us who aren’t naturals, and without a good checklist you will inevitably forget to start a recording or scramble to find the bio for a featured speaker. Start the meeting fifteen minutes early and invite your speaker and any key volunteers to join early as well, which will help you get warmed up.

I find it’s especially helpful to plan out that awkward period after you’ve admitted everyone from the waiting room and before you’ve officially started the meeting. I like to have a welcome slide up on the screen with the social media graphic for the event and the title, plus some kind of question for folks to answer in the chat. (That can be as simple as “Tell us where you are Zooming in from today.”) I use one of Zoom’s advanced features to position myself superimposed in the corner of the slide and wave as folks start entering and say some vague welcoming things, then I start responding to various things I see popping up in the chat.

I am not a skilled public speaker by any means, but I am a competent and comfortable one and that alone has opened opportunities that I wouldn’t otherwise have had. I firmly believe that with enough practice and preparation, anyone—no matter how shy or anxious or introverted—can do the same. If you need encouragement or cheerleading, drop me a line and I’ll send you both!

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